Your Birthday Goodbye
by Gentle Hina
Summary: If you were constently forgotten all your life, could you handle it? Slight USxCanada, slight FrancexUK


"I'm just too tired."

Matthew started towards his bedroom door on that cold winter night on July 1st; No one remembered his birthday yet again. He sat on his bed and ran his fingers through his sandy blond hair as he gave a loud sigh, his purple eyes closed tight in frustration.

Then, as he opened them, his thoughts turned to his closet. "My way out is in it." He thought as he opened the brown wooden doors and stared at his gun case. As he picked the handheld gun, his mind veared towards all the shit that had also happened earlier that day.

_Alfred walked up to the quiet Canadian as he kept both hands behind his back, grinning._

_"Hey Mattie! I got something for 'ya!" Matthew smiled eagerly as he hoped it was a birthday present. "What is it?" Alfred thwacked Matthew on the forehead which caused him to fall on his butt since he was standing. He placed both hands on his forehead and felt a tear in the corner of his eye. Alfred started to laugh while pointing to the Canadian, his face slightly turning red from laughing so hard, in fact. "A-Alfred, why'd you do that?! What kind of birthday present is that?!"_

_Alfred stopped laughing at him and frowned while raising a blond eyebrow. "Birthday present? Huh? Nah, it's not your birthday!" Alfred walked off laughing again thinking that he pulled such an awesome prank on his brother. _

Matthew opened the case.

_"Papa, do you know what day it is? Anything you want to say to me?" Matthew asked happily as he stood near Francis, who was cooking. The Frenchmen paused, then smiled. "Yes, there is something!" Matthew's eyes sparkled with delight; After all, Francis was his Papa, and he was THE only person who remembered who Matthew was! "Can you get me some flour and some eggs at the store? I need some because there's something special I'm cooking up!" Matthew's eyes dulled with disapointment as he weakly nodded and walked out of the house._

Placing the sliver yet dull bullets in, his began to raise the gun. With his eyes closed, he braced himself.

His front door opened and Alfred, Francis, and Arthur came through it with presents and a giant cake, a mayple leaf placed upon it.

"Matty," Alfred yelled as he swung open his bedroom door, a huge grin across his face, "Happy Birthday-"

_**BANG!**_

The black gun fell from his hand, blood spilling out from his head, glasses falling away from the scene. Alfred stood in the door frame in shock as color left his face at once. Francis and Arthur ran into the room and, like Alfred stood in complete and utter shock. Alfred ran over to Matthew and fell to his knees while taking off his coat and trying desperatly to stop the bleeding from Matthew's head. "Matthew...**MATTHEW**!" Francis dropped beside Matthew as while and applied pressure to his wound as well. Arthur called the ambulance and joined them.

"Oh God...Matt...Matthew! Don't...Please don't...MATTHEW!...Wa...Wake up! Ple...PLEASE!"

As he opened his eyes his whole body was full of pain, causing him to start crying and scream, dried blood all over his face.

"**MAKE IT STOP**! **MAKE IT STOP**! **MAKE IT STOP**!" He screeched as Alfred held him down. "Matthew, calm down! Don't move!" Arthur ran to the front door to let the paramedics in and in a matter of seconds they filled the room and carried the screaming and dying boy out of the room.

-------*--------

As they sat in the waiting room they all remained silent until Alfred spoke up with his head hanging. "...Did we all cause this?" ".........I think alot of people did, inculding us." Arthur mumbled as he fiddled with his hands. Francis sat away from them and stared at the wall: He felt the most responsible, seeing as he probably pushed Matthew to doing that, pretending to forget the Canadian's birthday. _"Papa, do you know what day it is? Anything you want to say to me?" _Those words kept replaying over and over inside the Frenchman's head as he bite his lip.

Alfred, on the other hand, had something that he regretted not telling Matthew a long time ago: He had feelings for him. And this, this just ate him, ate him so much that if it was possible he wouldn't be sitting in that room at that moment. He had, as well, replayed a scene in his mind, when he had thwacked Matthew's forehead. He hadn't noticed the look in his eyes as he looked up at him, the disapointment across his face as Alfred had said those words. He really was just playing though! Sure he had missed his birthday last year and the year before that...and the year before that...When had he really remembered his birthday? Then, something hit him: Could he deal with being ignored and forgotten all his life like Matthew? Could he deal with the pain that his own father couldn't remember him? Could he deal with only being noticed because he didn't have his own face, that it was his brother's on his?

_Alfred and Matthew were both 7 at the time: In fact, Alfred's birthday was yesterday. _

_Arthur walked into the room with a plate of store-bought cookies with a smiling face on._

_"Alfred, want some cookies?" Alfred jumped up and down and pushed his brother out of the way, causing him to fall back and hit his head on the table. "Yaaaayy! Cookies!! Awesome!" He yelled as he took a handfull and began to stuff his face. Arthur laughed slight and ruffled his dirty blond hair. "Eat slower or you'll choke!"_

_Matthew, only inches away was crying his eyes out as a little blood came dripping down from the back of his head, snot and tears dripping down as well, seeing as the poor boy couldn't handle pain well at the time. Alfred had noticed him but, as always, Arthur didn't. Right before he was going to tell Arthur Francis walked in with some soupcases and some tickets hanging out of his brown pants pockets. "Alfred, we're going on a trip for a week to my country! Ready to go?"_

_Alfred's eyes lite up and he grinned as Arthur held Francis's and Alfred's hand and walked them towards the door. "Yay! This is gonna be fun!" Alfred yelled as he ran outside._

_Matthew, with tears streaming down his face, ran over to Francis who was still in the house getting his wallet off the coffe table. Alfred noticed this happening and peeked through the door to see what was happening. _

_"Papa, you arn't going to leave me here, are you?! I'm coming with, right?!" The young boy sobbed as he quickly followed after Francis who was making a beeline for the front door. Alfred moved away, though he could still see Matthew clearly. Francis closed the door in front of Matthew, locked it and got into the car. _

_"Alfred, come get into the car!" Arthur called out as he himself got into the passenger side. "OK!" Alfred ran over to the car, stopped, and looked back: Matthew was looking out the window, but, in a laggy sort of movement, walked away from it with his red face hanging down. As the car began to move away from the house, Alfred yelled out "Wait! We're forgetting Matthew!" Francis still kept on and Arthur stared at the boy for a moment._

_"...Who is that?"_

Alfred couldn't take it any longer and ran into the room where Matthew was in. He rushed over to his brother's side and took his hand as he fought back tears, emotions speeding through his head all at once. Matthew-who had a breathing mask on and was connected to all sorts of machines- slid his half open eyes over to Alfred's watery blue ones and opened his mouth slightly.

"Matthew, I'm sorry! I'm sorry for everything! Please, Please don't go!" Alfred didn't notice the doctors and nurses leaving the room and heading out to where Arthur and Francis were.

"I need you here! Everyone does! Matthew, I-" Suddenly Matthew interrupted him.

"...I'm sorry but...Who's Matthew?" He began, his mind finally crumbling down to believing that there was no Matthew Williams.

"Is there a Matthew? I've never heard of anyone that has that name."

Alfred's tears came pouring out and he tightened his grip on Matthew's hand.

"You're Matthew! Matthew Williams! Canada!" He sobbed out as he realized that Matthew had lost it.

"No I'm not...I'm no one." Matthew smiled. "But I'm happy that someone's seeing me right now..." Matthew began to close his eyes slowly, his breathing slowing down. "I'm always invisible...No one hears me at all....I'm sorry Alfred...I'm just not noticeable like you. I just bring you down..."

"No you don't Matthew! Don't talk like that, just don't!" Matthew gripped Alfred's hand and frowned, tears coming down his own face as well.

"Please don't cry over me...It's like...crying over air..."

Matthew's chest stopped moving and Alfred's eyes widened. Matthew was...

"MATTHEW!"

"Alfred...I....I...", his voice softened to a faint whisper.

"Love...y...ou..."

And then it was over.

At his funeral, though everyone came, and everyone cried for Matthew. Except for Belarus and Russia, though they did look down through the whole thing. In the coffin, Matthew looked peaceful and rested.

Alfred placed his hand on Matthew's hand for the last time and bent over.

"_Matthew_," He began to whisper, " _I won't ever forget you. And neither will anyone else. I promise_."

And somewhere, Matthew smiled.


End file.
